The south of England Eurotour was one of my first races for a long time and it turned out to be the first competitive outing for JP and his Saker. Although my own limited thumbs mean that I am always very much an outside bet I love multiday events. The prospect of meeting up with some European as well as more local friends had me heading off to the glorious slopes of East Sussex.
There is an argument that
many F3F models have come together in terms of design. 3m span models certainly dominate and to the
untrained eye you’re very much relying on trademark colour schemes to separate
them. I’m not decrying these models-
they clearly work but it does tent to draw you eye to those models that stand alone.
The Caldera T, flown
by Deiter Perlick really stood out.
Deiter makes beautiful models which have tended to the smaller spans
over the years. Not surprisingly the T
ailed model flew ‘as if it was on rails’ and showed a remarkable ability in the
turn.
Deiter, in common with
many of the better pilots, did not stick to 1 turn style. As the weekend unfolded you could almost see
him learning what worked on the hill as the conditions changed. No one was better at doing this than the
eventual winner Markus Meissner. Markus
was 16th after the first round but hunter England’s Mark Redsell
down, round after round. Mark lost first
place in the very last round of the competition.
The greatest change in
fortunes came for John Philips. After
day 1 he was in 17th, including a fight with the local plant life-
que John bringing out his Saker and producing one of the most dominant day’s
flying that I can remember- Day 2 was JP day.
I don’t think her was ever out of the top 4, as the Saker showed the way
through some challenging conditions.
My own performance was
also improving and more than keeping up with the improving form of many
pilots. Being able to watch John fly my
design with such success was almost as good as flying them myself- the Saker is
without doubt capable of mixing it with just about every other model out
there. I could tell you about the bad
luck I had with the lift fading as I flew the last flight of the day but lets
not…
Weekends like this are
about far more than the podium finishers or just the racing. Those long days in the sunshine and wind were
finished off perfectly with a ‘debrief’ over a cold drink or 2. It’s at times like that when friendships are made
or strengthened as well as many of the best memories of the weekend. F3F at it’s best is about more than racing.
Possibly more than
anywhere else, UK racers know that you can go from last to first and back again
very easily and this does not affect your welcome each evening. If you have suffered some damage, you might
even get a pint put in front of you!
Although my car was
full of models and I carried 2 Sakers to the tope of the slope each day, my
Saker was rock solid and was the only model I flew all race. In some conditions that would have challenged
many models in previous years the Saker was always well behaved.
After a weekend like
this, my enthusiasm is certainly re-invigorated to get things ready for the
next UK summer league.
Now how about a bit of
sport flying fun and an evening out before the summer league outing?
